Territories
by Free.Spirit140
Summary: The coronation went exactly as the villains had planned, but the core four knew what side their hearts were on. Now, nearly 2 years later, divided like the land, it's hard for them to picture things going back to any semblance of 'normal.' But Mal decides enough is enough, it's time for an escape. Set from the coronation in the first film.
1. Chapter 1

**Set as an alternate universe from the coronation onwards. I've had this idea for a while but only just got to write it down. I hope you enjoy :)**

 **...**

Mal gasped, legs feeling like jelly as she took a step back, being caught by Jay before she could fall. The giant purple dragon in front of her gave a triumphant roar, eyes that had previously been glowing so brightly were now turned upwards as smoke encircled the beast. As the smoke cleared, the roar turned into a cackle that sent chills down the spine of the four unfrozen figures.

"Insolent fools!" Maleficent yelled, turning her attention on Mal "You thought you could defeat your own mother! Ha!" Maleficent waved her hand and the wand that had been dropped to the floor was flying towards her "Now. Where was I? Ah yes." Her eyes flashed green and the wand shone, and with a flash of light, there stood Jafar, Evil Queen and Cruella, right behind the horned woman. They were all cackling. Maleficent turned to her followers, addressing them with open arms "Take your pick villains! We have here an assembly of hero's just waiting to become our servants! Revenge will be ours!" The four set about whatever plan they had been plotting since their children had left, slithering through the crowd like snakes choosing their prey.

"Mum, please!" Mal pleaded, eyes shimmering with tears as her mother's eyes fell on Audrey and Aurora.

"Don't be so weak Mal! Auradon has poisoned your mind! It is for that reason alone I will overlook your actions!" Maleficent set about floating her chosen prey from their position in the crowd, a good quarter of the crowd lifting into the air, Ben, his family and Fairy Godmother included "To our new home!"

 **...**

About a month after the coronation the four villains that had been ruling the land had had a fallout. It was to be expected really, the four had never really gotten along and before they had left the Isle the only thing that had prevented them clawing each other's eyes out was the mutual agreement that they needed to work together to escape the Isle. And, since they were the four big-shot villains of the land it would be out of character for them to not fight in a big-shot way. They split the land into four territories and relocated themselves from the King Beast's Castle to four different areas of Auradon.

Maleficent's territory consisted of Arcadian City, now renamed 'Distopia', Arcadia Academy, similarly renamed to 'Distopia Academy,' Auroria, History Island and the Sea of Storms.

The Evil Queen's territory, fittingly, consisted of Charmington, Cinderellsdberg, Eden and the Strait of Ursula.

Jafar took possession of Sherwood Forest, Camelot Heights, The Forbidden Mountains, Triton's Bay and Winter's Keep.

Cruella took the Enchanted Wood, King Beast's Castle (Maleficent had protested but ended up giving in to the insane woman with a huff of "I didn't want the run-down shack anyway"), Olympus, Neverland, Rapunzel's Tower, the Sea of Ariel and Skull Island.

Large walls, were erected and that was that. The kingdom was torn into four and the residents forced to either pick a side of the wall separating the territories or be crushed by it.

The Isle of the Lost became neutral ground and was where the once Heroes of the land were sent if they were deemed too useless to work or unamusing, needless to say it was near empty.

 **...**

Nearly 18 months later Mal was sat at her window. It was typical for her to be found at her window, looking out over the city of Distopia, and squinting into the distance, trying to make out the towers of Charmington over the large black wall that marked the end of Maleficent's 'kingdom' and EQ's. On clear days she could just about see the top of a new, golden building glimmering in the sunlight, and there was no doubt in her mind who lived there. Since Maleficent took over this area clear days were few and far between and it seemed that dark purple clouds constantly circled the city, but that didn't stop mal from searching for the shiny building in the distance. Mal missed her friends, she wasn't ashamed to admit it. Even surrounded by all this evil for the past 19 months, Mal had managed to resist returning to her evil ways. She put on the act when around her mother, or other villains, but here, in her room, she could be who she wanted.

A knock drew her attention to the door and she quickly picked herself off her window seat turned to face it.

"Enter!" She barked, levelling the door with a glare. The door opened to a familiar face and instantly Mal relaxed, flopping back into her chair.

"You called for me Miss?" Audrey asked, bowing slightly.

"In. Close the door." Mal commanded.

Audrey did just that and Mal's eyes flicked over her appearance. After nearly two years of working as a servant, Audrey had changed quite a lot, in both appearance and personality. Her hair was never neat anymore. It was always tied into a bird's nest's excuse of a bun. Her brown eyes were sunken and dark bags hung under them. The fancy clothes had long ago been switched for brown, loose fitting trousers and a white button-up top that was never free of dirt.

"Use the ensuite and get cleaned up. If mum comes to the door don't scream when I come in." Mal said, nodding to the door that lead to her ensuite bathroom. Audrey gave a grateful smile before heading in.

Ever since the incident Mal and Audrey had become… friends. It sounded weird to say it but it was true. Audrey had been quick to give a teary apology to Mal as soon as Maleficent trusted her daughter to be around the heroes unsupervised. Mal had accepted and convinced Maleficent to make Audrey Mal's personal servant, that way she could take care of the girl behind her mother's back. Of course, that didn't stop Maleficent from using the girl whenever Mal wasn't. Audrey was one of the only 'non-villains' she had contact with, the other few being a small handful of her mother's staff.

Mal stared out of the window again, her mind now turning to her hero friends that were spread throughout the kingdom. Mal only knew where two of them were and that was Audrey and Ben. Ben was in the dungeons hundreds of feet below her feet, never allowed to leave and, Maleficent made clear, never allowed visitors.

She moved to grab her sketch book and flipped through until she found a hand drawn map of the new Auradon, boarders drawn in. The map had Maleficent's territory drawn in extreme detail, every new building, tent and shack drawn on, whilst the other territories looked bland in comparison, only having the details from the original Auradon map. She carefully ran her fingers along the borders, the walls that separated her from her friends, imagining her crushing each one as she dragged her finger over the black lines.

The bathroom door opened but Mal didn't take notice, not looking up from her map until a hand pushed the sketch book closed. She looked up at Audrey, her hair tied in a towel with her previous clothes back on.

"They were shining again." Audrey stated, refereeing clearly to Mal's eyes. Audrey moved to sit on Mal's bed, untying her hair and working on drying it out "Why did you actually call me here Mal, we both know it wasn't just so I could wash."

Mal's eyes flicked back down to the book in her hands "I… may have a plan."

Audrey's eyes lit up and she dropped the towel instantly, rushing to Mal's side "Really? Really truly?"

"I mean, it's a plan sure, but it's not really smoothed out yet, it's got a few kinks… and I'm not sure we'll be able to save all of Auradon right away. It's more of a small plan to lead up to a big plan."

"Any plan is better than nothing! Come on, out with it!" Audrey persisted bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Before we do it I need to get into the dungeons. I need to see if it will really work." Mal stated, finally looking away from the book.

Audrey gave an exasperated sigh "Your mother will never let you go down there Mal, not so long as Ben is down there. You know that."

"I know but maybe… maybe she'll let you down there, if you manage to convince her to let you take the food to the prisoners instead of Lumiere." Mal pushed.

Audrey hummed, moving back to sitting on the bed "Maybe if you told me the plan I could tell you whether or not it's worth the risk. She knows I work for you Mal, if I suddenly take the food instead of Lumiere she'll get suspicious pretty quickly."

"We escape here with Ben, his parents and yours. We adjust our appearances with magic and head for the border to Jafar's and get across. By the time mother notices, we're missing we should be long gone. She'll alert Jafar and tell him to tell his people, but Jafar being Jafar he'll just find the entire thing hilarious and force mother to give him money in exchange for telling his people and handing us over to her. Mother will refuse and for a while it will go back and forth, by the time they've stopped quarrelling we'll be in Queenie's, hopefully Cruella's." Mal couldn't stop herself smiling.

"That's all fair and good but what if Maleficent doesn't think we went to Jafar and alerts EQ or Cruella first and by the time we get to them they already have her territories on high alert?" Audrey asked, though there was a ghost of a smile on her face that Mal hadn't seen since long before the coronation.

"We could change our appearances back just before we cross the border so people are sure to see us, and when word gets out that I escaped with some of the heroes, everyone will flock to give my mother information in hopes of a reward!" Mal was beaming, the dots were connecting "The hard part will be getting to Cruella's, but I figured we could get on a barge from Queenie's to the Isle and from the Isle we can get on a barge returning to Cruella's. Once we've found the others there we can go over the mountains, out of Auradon, find another kingdom that can gather an army and return to Auradon with enough man power to beat my mother and the others!"

"This could work! This could work!" Audrey was smiling properly now, eyes flickering with hope.

Mal's smile faltered "Provided the dungeon's locks can be taken out the way I was hoping."

"That way being?" Audrey pressed.

Mal pulled out a vial from her pocket, the content shining neon yellow inside "A potion that burns through metal."

"I'll test it. Let me go talk to Lumiere, he'll be happy to help, it's just a case of how." Audrey took the vile from Mal with a smile "If this works Mal, we could be out of here in the time it takes you to brew another one of these potions."

"Three days. If it works we can leave in three days."


	2. Chapter 2

Audrey kept her head down as she left Mals room. She gave the odd smile to the other staff members, a few of whom had been her school mates once upon a time. She didn't stop walking, however, until she reached the giant, communal servants chambers. Once she got in she cast her eyes around the room, glad to see it empty except for Lumiere, who was sleeping in the corner. She smiled, her hand wrapping around the vial in her hand as she approached the former candlestick.

"Lumy?" she whispered, nudging him as she squatted next to his sleeping form. He jumped, eyes snapping open at the contact in a way that reminded Audrey of animal that had been startled by a loud noise.

"Ahhhh, mademoiselle." He murmured, his voice almost broken as he sat up "What can I do for you?" Audrey smiled, helping him sit up fully before sitting herself next to him.

Time had not done the man any favours, he was grey from a mix of stress and age and he was skinny and bony from starvation. His eyes were sunken, the usual glow of life and energy he gave off long since dimmed to but a flicker of its old self.

"I have a big favour to ask you Lumy." Audrey went to pull out the vial but froze with it still half in her pocket, eyes darting around the room.

"Mademoiselle?"

"Shhh!" Audrey shushed, standing up and pulling off her shoe. With a thwacking sound she had hit a large black beetle from the wall and was looking around again. Lumiere quickly understood and picked himself off of the floor, removing his own shoe as well. Between them they hit a total of five black bugs from the walls around them before they deemed it safe to sit themselves back in the corner.

"I hate how Maleficent uses bugs to watch us." Audrey stated shuddering, before turning her attention back to Lumiere and pulling the vial out into the open "Lumy, in this bottle is a potion Mal cooked up, if it works it should burn directly through metal. Metal like the locks in the dungeon." Lumiere's eyes widened with realisation, a small flicker of hope igniting "We need to test it, before we do anything. But neither of us can get down there. You're the one that takes them their food, right? Can we… maybe trade places for one shift?" Audrey batted her eyelashes, attempting a puppy-dog look.

"Of course, mademoiselle! Anything to help rescue the rightful rulers!" Lumiere was smiling a wide smile that had become oh-so-rare in the last two years "But I am not sure Maleficent will approve."

"I've thought of that. She doesn't need to know. You can collect the food from the kitchen as normal and then meet me at the door to the dungeons, give me the food and then I go down, tell the guards that I'm the one doing it today and get in."

"The guards will question it, they may even ask Maleficent." Lumiere sighed, frown returning to his features.

"Then you have to be the one to do it." Audrey stated, determination in her eyes "You take the potion down and test it, then report back to me if it worked or not."

The man's eyes widened but he nodded anyway "Of course! Yes, I shall do that for you."

"Thank you Lumy. But listen, its important you don't use the potion on a cell with someone in. If the cell gets checked then its game over before its even started. Are there empty cells down there?"

Lumiere hummed, concentrating for a second before slowly nodding "Not near where I usually deliver the food but I can get to them without much hassle. No one down there questions me anymore, I take orders directly from the lady in charge, they have no reason to question me…" He nodded again "this is no problem at all."

Audrey couldn't resist pulling the man into a hug, whispering a quiet "thank you" into his ear, the thought of seeing her parents again and getting out of this hell causing her emotions to bubble to the surface without her consent. Tears trickled down her face as the wave of emotions she'd been trying so hard to control hit her.

"It's okay mademoiselle, it's okay." Lumiere cooed, stroking her hair gently to try and sooth her "I will test the potion tonight, you'll be out of here soon."

"Oh Lumy," she sniffed, so un-lady-like but for some reason she couldn't bring herself to care "I wish you could come, I really do, you've done so much for me I just- I-"

"Shhhhh, hush mademoiselle. I understand how complicated this is. An old man like me would slow you down dear one. You get yourself and your family and friends as far away from here as possible, I will keep the hopes of people up by spinning tales of your return."

"They won't be tales Lumy. I will come back. We will come back. And we'll have an army. I promise." Audrey pulled back, wiping the remaining moisture from her face with her sleeve "A princess never breaks a promise."

And she was a princess.

* * *

I'm sorry this took so long, and I'm sorry it's so short, I hope to update again soon thank you for reading!


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